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Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

The Mother’s Health and Safety Act, HB 2838, was heard in the House Health and Human Services Committee last week.

One of the most powerful moments came when Representative Justin Pierce shared the story of his brother’s family, and how despite pressure from doctors, they chose life and now have a beautiful 3 year old son.

As of this writing, 12 Center for Arizona Policy supported bills have been signed into law. Two more measures achieved final passage. Both houses recognized the tremendous work of pregnancy care centers throughout Arizona. And, in a long-awaited move, the legislature referred a CAP-supported reform measure to the November, 2012, ballot to enhance transparency and accountability to Arizona’s merit selection system of selecting judges.

Another four CAP-supported bills await the governor’s action, while two have been vetoed.

In the coming days, CAP will release the 2011 Family Issues Voting Record, reporting on how Arizona’s 90 state legislators voted on important issues to the family. CAP also will release a recap of the 2011 session once Governor Brewer has acted on all CAP-supported legislation.

Track the progress of all CAP-supported legislation with our Bill Tracker.

Polling consistently tells us this, and even more to the point, Arizonans have elected one of the most pro-life legislatures in the country, along with a Governor with a strong and steady record of protecting life.

This explains why HB 2384 received so much support by the legislature. This bill ensures that no taxpayer dollars or student tuition and fees at our public universities are used for abortion training.

It also prohibits donations to organizations that provide, promote, pay for, or provide referrals for abortion from qualifying for the working poor tax credit.

Following Senate bill passage sending HB 2384 to the Governor, some media members chose to highlight a statement by an apparent opponent … and they missed the facts and the point.

‘If enacted, this proposed legislation will certainly jeopardize the accreditation of our obstetrics-gynecology residency program,’ said Steven Goldschmid, a doctor and dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.”

This simply is not true.

The ob/gyn residency program accreditation does NOT require abortion training. The requirements state that if a residency program or hospital has a legal or moral reason why they cannot or do not offer abortion training, they are not required to provide it. The program only has to provide training in managing complications from abortion and not inhibit a student from seeking the training elsewhere. Both of those things would still be allowed under the bill.

Additionally, our state already has an example of an ob-gyn residency program in Arizona – the one run by Maricopa County’s health district – that has a legal restriction prohibiting abortion training and abortion services and that has retained its accreditation to this day. This program’s accreditation has not been threatened or jeopardized by a legal restriction prohibiting taxpayer dollars from funding abortions or abortion training.

For the Record:

HB 2384 does not jeopardize the accreditation of the University of Arizona’s ob/gyn residency program, nor any similar program in the state. National accreditation board’s rules have exceptions for programs where state laws ban public funds for abortion training.

HB 2384 does continue longstanding Arizona public policy protecting taxpayers from being forced to have their taxpayer dollars used to promote, provide, or perform abortions.